Claims etc. - Rule 83: Exclusion of liability
The Association and/or directors and employees of the Gard group shall not be liable for any negligence, errors and/or omissions whatsoever when performing any insurance distribution activities and which may be committed by the directors and employees of the Gard group or by lawyers, advisers or other experts engaged on behalf of the Member.
The Association and/or directors and employees of the Gard group shall not be liable for monies which are lost, having been collected by persons engaged on behalf of the Member, or entrusted to such persons.
The Association shall not be liable to pay interest on any sums due from it to the Member.
Guidance
It is considered both necessary and reasonable in the context of mutual insurance that the Association and/or directors and employees of the Gard group should not be liable for the consequences of any negligence in the handling of a case or for any advice that is given in relation to a case or to a Member generally, whether on the part of the Gard group’s own employees, or on the part of experts, such as lawyers and surveyors, that are engaged to handle the case on the Member’s behalf. The reason for this is that any damages or other sums that would be payable to an individual Member in the event of such liability would have to be financed by the membership as a whole, and would, therefore, result in a reduction of the funds that are available to protect the interests of the other Members.
For similar reasons, the Association and/or directors and employees of the Gard group also have no liability for monies that are lost after they have been collected by, or entrusted to, correspondents, agents or other persons that are engaged on behalf of the Member.
Finally, Rule 83.3 establishes that the Association is not liable to pay interest on sums that are payable to the Member regardless of the time that may expire between the moment when the Member incurs a liability, cost or expense, and the time when he is reimbursed by the Association.
For the purposes of this rule, insurance distribution activity encompass all activities performed by the Association and/or directors and employees of the Gard group including but not limited to all underwriting and claims handling, i.e. activities of advising on, proposing or carrying out any work preparatory to the conclusion of contracts of insurance, of concluding such contracts, or of assisting in the administration and performance of such contracts, in particular in the event of a claim.
